First, the current status: The arugula and volunteer dill are still alive. At least they were yesterday; it’s supposed to be 16 tonight so we’ll see. The basil is clinging to life as a houseplant. When I watered all the others before our trip, I forgot it. It seems to be recovering for now. Sorry, basil.
Anyway. I’ve got a good idea of what I want to do with the gardens next year, so let me lay it out:
- The rhubarb should be big enough that we get to pick some, and I want to plant a second rhubarb.
- Beets! Beet greens make me happy, but I’m giving up on getting beets.
- I’ll try spinach and swiss chard again. Maybe they’ll grow.
- There will definitely be successive plantings of lettuce and mesclun. If J is lucky, more than just the arugula will grow in the late fall.
- I’m not going to bother with beans or peas because they don’t produce enough to be worth it. I’d rather use the space for greens.
- Lots of fennel again.
- Radishes. This year I didn’t plant them until fall; next year I will try them in spring as well.
- I’m going to try putting something (stones or metal) around the tomatoes and eggplant to make them warmer. Hopefully in some fashion that won’t look horrible. If I buy flagstones I could use them elsewhere once we widen the driveway.
In non-food plans, I want to add one or two native prairie flowers to the end of the vegetable bed, where I have one purple coneflower and one…I forget, one of the many yellow things. This year they were just a few leaves, so I hope next year they actually grow tall. And if I’m really ambitious, I’ll put a lattice up to screen the rain barrel from the street.